


Return Of the Rogues

by Adelocosa



Category: The Flash (Comics)
Genre: Genderfluid Character, Multi, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-20
Updated: 2015-08-20
Packaged: 2018-04-16 07:56:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,312
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4617483
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Adelocosa/pseuds/Adelocosa
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Rogues meet their children after they tumble through a wall. Chaos ensues.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Return Of the Rogues

**Author's Note:**

> For the Rogues bang 2015
> 
>  
> 
> Art by Mashimero  
> http://mashimero.tumblr.com/post/127169769846/return-of-the-rogues-fic-by-ilariamoonie-art-by

Len Snart had a headache. And he had a whole bunch of pains in his ass. Namely, his beautiful girlfriend (yes, she happened to be a prostitute, but it was the most committed relationship he had ever been in, so he thought of her as his girlfriend), who had been calling him all day to make sure he realized her ‘fees’ were going up as of today, and his teammates, with whom he’d been holed up in their hideout for two weeks. It felt like two years. But they had to lay low while they waited out the mess related to a recent job.  
How were they supposed to know the FBI was running a sting? Oops. So they had accidentally destroyed a government jet, a few government armored vehicles and the FBI director’s Mercedes, so what? Oh, and some human traffickers got blown up (not that anyone on the team really regretted that part). As Axel had spray-painted on the wall of the J. Edgar Hoover Building (FBI headquarters), “Sorry, Our Bad.”  
So obviously, the Rogues agreed they better stay out of sight until the Feds cooled down a little. It might take a while.  
“I’m going to be stuck in this place with these lunatics forever,” Len said to himself. The future looked bleak. Very bleak.  
Len was sitting with a bottle of whiskey on the couch, muttering insults that no one was paying any attention to. He was slumped over, the expression on his face sullen and annoyed, what his sister Lisa called his “juvenile delinquent look”.  
Lisa was in the kitchen yelling at Roscoe for some minor offense that, even though Len wasn't really listening, he could tell had been blown completely out of proportion. Her voice tended to carry while Roscoe’s apologies seamed very shrill.  
Hartley was off somewhere, probably doing math for fun. He didn’t usually stay with the Rogues, even when they “hit the mattresses,” as Sonny Corleone would say, because he had a special relationship with the police. Well, with a certain member of the police. But Hartley had asked for, and been given, the green light to sleep on the couch since he and David had gotten into an argument a few nights before. The upshot was that they had one more person in a crowded house. Hartley had been moping around, listening to Taylor Swift’s new album on his special hearing aids. Len wondered if Hartley knew that everyone could hear what he was playing over that contraption. And now Len was on the couch leaning against a pillow that reeked of Hartley’s Paco Robanne Invictus cologne. The pillow was also stained with tears.  
Sam and Evan were in a mirror somewhere, doing God knows what. For fun sometimes Lisa would turn the mirrors to face the wall in the middle of the night. He heard her do it the night before, the mirrors scraping and banging against the walls, her slightly unsettling, somewhat evil sounding chuckle moving through the pitch-black house. It was downright terrifying.  
Jesse, Mindy and Axel were painting the garage black for Vinyl Record Day (yes, that exists—who knew?). Their plan was to paint not only the walls, but also the floor and ceiling as well. Then Jesse was going to make a carousel in the center, painted to look like the label of Led Zeppelin’s album “Houses of the Holy”. The smell of paint fumes almost covered up Hartley’s Paco Robanne smell, but not quite.  
Mick was sad and hungover because a girl he liked, who he had met in a coffee shop in Keystone, had figured out who he was and called the police. Len told him no good would come from going out in public when they were in hiding. Mick had successfully evaded the police, but a night of drinking and feeling sorry for himself had gotten him to where he was now. Which was crying and listening to Evanescence endlessly in Len’s (locked from the inside) bedroom. Because of this, Len was wearing the same underwear he had worn the day before.  
Shawna was in the study reading articles about racism and just getting angry. Every now and then Len would be startled by her shouts of “You have got to be kidding me!” Followed by a curse word, or a string of curse words, of some nature.  
For some reason Barry Allen (aka the Rogues’ greatest enemy) had taken to spending time at the Rogues’ hide out. Len had tried to shoo him away but he wouldn’t budge. He had also taken to bringing Iris West with him.  
“Why the hell should we let you stay here?” Len had said to Barry and Iris. “And why the hell would you want to?”  
“Love thine enemies,” Barry said. God his face looked young, and innocent, and kind of goofy. “Also,” Barry said, “We may kind of need to hide from the Feds, too. But it was an accident and nobody was hurt.”  
“Don’t ask,” Iris told Len.  
“Don’t tell,” Len had said, as he walked away. He found this was often the best course of action when dealing with Barry Allen.  
Today, Barry and Iris had turned the kitchen table into any journalist’s heaven: two laptops, a stack of newspapers, half of a day-old sandwich, a pair of scented markers, four cups of coffee and what appeared to be about 2,000 pens.  
Mark and Julie Jackham were in the shower together, using up all the hot water. As usual. Len hadn’t showered in days because these two found it necessary to stand (or whatever they were doing, Len didn’t want to think about it) under hot running water for an hour twice a day. Last night he had actually peed in the back yard because Mark and Julie were in one bathroom and Axel was in the other, for a very, very long time.  
He was grumbling to himself when a tap on his shoulder interrupted him.  
"Len? Len?”  
Len looked up to see a nervous Hartley Rathaway standing above him.  
Len took a swig of the liquor. "What?"  
"Umm... My tech is picking up some...weird vibrations and..."  
"And what?" Len said, not entirely paying attention, but not entirely disinterested either.  
"Like... Magic. Speed force shit. Something weird is connecting to this place," Hartley said, looking around. "I don't know what it is but this kinda stuff gets freaking annoying."  
"This kinda stuff?" Len stood up to go to get some ice cream that Axel had bought (and hopefully not spiked with something crazy) and took another swig of liquor.  
Suddenly the wall to the living room started to glow bright blue.  
Barry zoomed up to the wall as Iris followed at human speed. From the rest of the safe house the rest of the Rogues entered at various stages of realizing ‘oh crap the wall is glowing’ (except for Mark and Julie, though that was probably for the best) and gathered around the room to stare at the glowing wall.  
“Should we… do something?” Axel asked about two minutes later.  
The wall began to glow brighter.  
“It’s going to blow!” James yelled.  
“It’s not going to blow, you silly twat!” Hartley sighed and turned towards the Rogues who mentally prepared themselves for one of his science lectures. “The energy it’s giving off, it can be used for transportation through time or dimensions, not explosives.”  
“Wait,” Lisa said turned towards Hartley and gave him a look that said ‘you’ve got to be kidding me’. “So you’re saying that someone is trying to travel into our hideout from another time or dimension? That’s not remotely concerning at all,” she drawled sarcastically.  
“Trying to? No. In order to do this someone has to be fairly powerful. And focused. But this energy is all over the place. There’s a good chance that this is accidental,” Hartley said. Len could tell he was doing math in his head because he had the same look on his face as when JJ was trying to teach Axel calculus.  
Mick groaned suddenly and eased himself into a chair. “Damn hangovers,” he muttered. “I never got them in my twenties.”  
“Accidental?” Sam called from one of the many mirrors placed around the hideout. Len had turned them right side out after Lisa had finally gone to bed. Sam said loudly, “You mean someone might just appear here from 00 BC or 7812?”  
Shawna and Evan both made faces.  
“Well,“ Hartley started to speak but was cut off by the blue light getting brighter and brighter. Everyone shielded his or her eyes. When they opened them again they were looking at a bunch of kids. Eleven kids to be exact, piled up on top of each other on the floor (in not very comfortable positions) by the blue glowing wall. And the kids each looked like a mini version of one of them. Crap.  
“What the hell?!” the mini Lisa yelped.  
“Blaze, your elbow is pushing on my left boob!” the mini Mark said groaning at the mini Heatwave on top of her.  
“TMI, Genesis!” the mini Heatwave groaned back.  
“Kezia, would you be so inclined as to get your butt out of my face?” the mini Hartley (with David’s coloring) said rather passive aggressively.  
“I would but Lenae is on my legs,” a mini Shawna grunted.  
“Can’t you teleport?!” the mini Hartley-David yelled.  
“I’m trying! It won’t work!” The mini Shawna wriggled back and forth but to no avail.  
“Leo! Is that dad?!” a girl mini Len, Lenae, said, scrambling off of Kezia.  
“Well, it is a grown man indoors in a parka. Of course it’s dad! He looks so young! We’re in the past-” the other mini Len said, gesturing towards Len.  
“This is amazing! All the havoc I could wreak!” a mini Mindy Hong interrupted happily, albeit slightly muffled from her position under a mini James Jesse. Mini James gave a thumbs up.  
“We’re not in the past, dickwit!” the mini Iris said, glaring at Leo, ignoring the trickster twins.  
Iris West blanched at hearing her token insult used by this child.  
“Moira, look up,” the mini Barry said.  
She did. “Oh sh-”  
There had been awkward silence for about a minute when, suddenly, a very disheveled Mark came running down the stairs wearing a bathrobe. The belt of his robe caught on the railing and he tripped, tumbled down to the landing but managed to pick himself up once he reached the living room floor and then barreled through the assembled Rogues, stopping in front of a very surprised and, judging by her red cheeks, slightly embarrassed Genesis. Mark looked up from catching his breath only to make eye contact with her and once again he lost his breath. “Dude,” he panted, “why am I so out of shape?”  
“Hello… Dad. I’m Genesis,” the girl said nervously.  
Mark’s expression went from surprised to nervous to disbelief until he noticed her sparky eyes and, once again, hit the ground with a thump.  
“Silly man,” Lisa shook her head. “I'm guessing that you kids have been out all day, playing. It’s summer, so no school, right?”  
“Yep,” Blaze said, leaning over to inspect Mark.  
“You must be hungry then,” Lisa said, nudging Mark away from Blaze with her foot.  
“Also, yep,” Kezia said.  
“Come to the kitchen, ” Lisa smiled, waving the other Rogues over. “Hartley and Len will get you some food, Sam and Evan can take care of Mark and the rest of us will chat with you, sound good?”  
The kids nodded and started to make their way to the kitchen.  
“Be careful with my husband.” Julie said to Sam and Even as she came down the stairs.  
Sam and Evan both sighed, but they stepped out of their mirror world to check Mark for a concussion. And to close his robe, which had fallen open in an unfortunate way when he fell. “Why us?” Evan muttered.  
“What is your problem?” Hartley said to Mark’s unconscious body. The man could control weather yet fluctuated between being effortlessly hip and overestimating the reality of his manly confidence.  
“Who are these kids?” Julie asked Mindy.  
“Come here,” Mindy said as she pulled Julie into the bathroom to explain the situation.  
On the way to the kitchen the kids swung off their backpacks and tossed them into a pile on the couch.  
“Hey be careful with that!” The mini Iris yelped as the others threw their backpacks on top of hers, which was filled with presents and snacks.  
“OK, come along,” Lisa said.  
“Thanks, Mommy,” the mini Lisa said, grabbing Lisa’s hand as they walked towards the kitchen.  
Lisa looked surprised but quickly regained her composure. “You’re welcome. What’s your name, sweetie?”  
“Luz Cyndy Snart-Dillon!” Luz said looking at Lisa with big eyes.  
“That is a beautiful name,” Lisa said, happy with her and Roscoe’s future name choice. “Now come on, growing girls like you need some snacks.”  
“Lisa?” Len called watching the children closely.  
“Yeah, Lenny?” Lisa said, turning towards him.  
“Can I talk to you for a sec?”  
“Sure,” Lisa turned toward Luz.  
“I’ll just go with Uncle Hartley, Mommy,” Luz said.  
“Ok, sweetie,” Lisa said. Luz ran off towards the kitchen.  
“Oh my God, Uncle Hartley,” Lisa whispered to Len. “How freaking adorable is that?”  
“Lisa… we have kids,” Len said. He looked simultaneously confused, afraid and a tiny bit happy. “Kids, Lisa.”  
“Yep,” Lisa said. “Those twins look like just like Angie! Thank goodness,” she gave Len a hard punch in the shoulder. “I knew you were serious about her, you sly dog.”  
“They do look a lot like Angie,” Len said. “I wonder if, as her husband, I get a discount.”  
Lisa looked him up and down, a mock-disgusted look on her face. “I wouldn’t count on it,” she said. She laughed. “My little Luz is adorable! And so sweet!”  
“She sure is,” Len said, “she’s probably adopted.” He punched Lisa in the shoulder slightly softer than she had punched him.  
“She is,” the mini Piper-David called from the kitchen. “And thank God for that.”  
Luz nodded, grabbing a cereal box, “I love you and Daddy very much, but you both have psychological problems. I mean, mom put on ice skates and fought a man with super speed who wears a bright red suit. And I don’t really understand Dad’s full story, but apparently he tried to take over the world or something and died a few times.”  
Roscoe nodded softly putting some water on the stove for hot chocolate, thinking, that little kid is astute.  
“And of course we look a lot like Angie, because she’s our mom,” Leo said.  
“Alright,” Len barked, glaring at the kids who must’ve been glared at by Len often because they didn’t even flinch, “we are all going to sit down and you kids are going to tell us what your names are, who your parents are, if you have powers and, and, everything!”  
“Won’t that complicate the time stream?” Mini Barry asked trying to make himself as small as possible.  
“I don’t care! Sit down, all of you!” Len said  
And that’s how Len Snart, Mick Rory, Lisa Snart, Hartley Rathaway, James Jesse, Axel Walker, Shawna Baez, Sam Scudder, Evan McCulloch, a now conscious but still shell-shocked Mark Mardon, Mindy Hong and Julie Jackham (they had come back from the bathroom and Julie had a shocked look on her face), Roscoe Dillon, Barry Allen and Iris West ended up sitting around the kitchen facing 11 children.  
“Alright,” Len started. “Do you know who all of us are?”  
The kids all nodded.  
“Where’s Bette’s dad?” Lenae asked.  
“Who?” Len said, squinting at her. Damn, she had Angie’s eyes!  
“Uncle Digger,” Lenae said, squinting back at her father.  
“Cousin’s funeral, poor guy,” Shawna said. “In Australia.” Digger had taken his chances with the Feds to leave the country. He and his cousin had been very close.  
The kids nodded again, solemnly this time as if they understood that Digger was sad.  
“Wait, Digger has a kid?” Evan asked.  
“He just adopted Bette from an orphanage in Canberra,” the mini Piper-David said.  
“She’s adorable!” Mini Shawna said.  
“I can show you a picture,” Blaze pulled out a futuristic cellphone and started to type something.  
“This is not good for the time stream,” the mini Barry tried to grab the phone but was no match for Blaze. Blaze held it up out of Hal’s reach and stared at him with fiery eyes.  
Barry smiled reassuringly at him. “It’ll be ok, buddy,” Barry said, rubbing his shoulder.  
“It won’t work in this part of space-time, anyway,” the mini Piper-David said, looking at his phone. “The cellular technology here is practically stone age.”  
“Okay, good for Digger. Now, let’s start with you two,” Len turned towards Leo and Lenae.  
“Are you sure we should do this? What about the time stream?” Leo said, looking very apprehensive.  
“Don’t worry about it,” Len said. He knew he was being careless, but his curiosity outweighed his worries.  
Lenae sighed, “My name is Lenae Nina Snart, this is my brother Leo John Snart. We are 13 years old-”  
“In four weeks,” Leo corrected her. Lanae gave him a dismissive look.  
“Our parents are Len and Angie Snart,” she continued. “I have two younger sisters, and Luz is my cousin. My brother and I enjoy sports, TV and ice cream.”  
“They really are mini yous,” Lisa whispered in Len’s ear, giggling, “minus the parka. And hopefully the booze.”  
“Four kids?” Mick said, leering at Len and shaking his head. “Someone’s been getting busy.”  
“Watch it in front of the kids, Mick,” Iris said. Normally Mick wouldn’t take being reprimanded very well, but something about Iris’s gentle smile made everything she said come across as friendly.  
“Sorry, Iris,” Mick said, blowing her a kiss. Iris laughed, Barry and mini Barry caught each other’s eyes and both shook their heads and sighed.  
“Twins is one pregnancy, Mick.” Len muttered, then turned towards Blaze. “Alright, you!”  
“Um, I’m Blaze Micah Rory, I am nine years old, my father is Mick Rory, the unkempt hung-over gentleman there beside you who speaks inappropriately in front of children. I have two siblings and I like fire, soda and comedy shows.”  
“Oh great, she a pyro, too!” Evan groaned, earning glares from Mick and Blaze.  
“Yes, I am a pyromaniac, but don’t worry, we have made some awesome medical breakthroughs in our time!” Blaze said. “And it’s ‘they’.”  
“What?” Evan asked.  
“As in, instead of ‘he’ or ‘she’ you use ‘they’ or ‘them’. Gender fluid people have pronouns, too, you know,” Blaze said, twirling a piece of their hair.  
“Ok, then…” Len said. “Luz?”  
“Well, my name is Luz Snart-Dillon, as you know, and I have two sibling (both are also adopted, thank god), my parents are Lisa and Roscoe Snart-Dillon. I like ice skating, movies and scaring Hal with ghost stories.”  
The mini Barry, Hal apparently, groaned.  
“Your name is Hal? As in Hal Jordan?” Barry asked, surprised.  
“Yep.” Hal nodded.  
“Genesis,” Mark turned to her. “I want answers.”  
“Okie dokie then. My name is Clydie Genesis Jackam-Mardon. I just go by Genesis. I was born, a month premature, on a family trip to Guatemala. I have an older brother Josh (don’t ask, time stream is weird as fu-hell), and two younger siblings, whose names I’m not going to tell. My parents are Julie and Mark Jackham-Mardon. I enjoy speaking condescendingly in Spanish to my peers, justice and the Weather Channel.”  
Julie and Mark both gave simultaneous looks of ‘what the hell?!’, ‘why today’, ‘Josh is alive?’ and ‘why did we name our kid Clydie Genesis?’.  
“… Am I still hot in the future?” Mark finally asked Genesis.  
She sighed. “You’re… ok? I don’t really want to grade my dad on attractiveness.”  
“Who does?” Leo muttered.  
“I think you look great!” Blaze commented.  
“Gross,” Genesis said.  
Len shook his head and turned towards the trickster twins. This would be fun. He pointed at the girl.  
“Alrighty then! I am Tazia Jesse-Hong! You may call me Trixie! I have a brother,” Trixie gestured wildly toward her brother. “His name is Dante. We have a little sister, name redacted, and our parents are-”  
Dante spun his arms around his sides like windmills, crossed his arms over his chest and, with a flourish of his fingers, pointed to Mindy and JJ.  
“Mindy and James Jesse-Hong!” Trixie yelled out in a sing-song voice, like announcing the prize on a cheesy game show. “I am fluent in Korean, English and Italian. My brother cannot speak, but he can read, write and understand English, Italian and Korean. We enjoy toys.”  
Hartley leaned over to Len and whispered, “I know that you’re worried, and these two seem like they’re insane. But if you think about their genes, they are really best case scenario.”  
JJ and Mindy both nodded, smiled and waved at their kids. JJ even got a little misty-eyed. “They’re angels!” he whispered to Mindy, who rolled her eyes.  
“Let’s not get carried away,” she whispered back, running a hand through JJ’s butter blond hair. “Our kids are not going to be ‘angels’.”  
Len sighed. “Ok then. Hal?”  
Hal smiled nervously. “Um. I’m, uh, Hal Henry Allen. My-my parents are Patty Spivot and Barry Allen and I have three little siblings, I better not tell you their names. I like science a-and documentaries an-and family chemistry time.”  
“Oh, Barry,” Iris turned to him. “Family chemistry time? That is beyond nerdy.”  
Mick laughed roughly, “Talk about cruel and unusual punishment!”  
Blaze laughed too, and reached over to fist-bump Mick.  
“Hey!” Barry said, “I am not blameless here, I know, but Patty would probably care more about family bonding time than me! Right?”  
“Eh,” was the answer most of the assembled Rogues and the kids gave, knowing better than to engage.  
“Four kids? Barry’s the one getting busy…” Len muttered. He guessed that, given that Barry’s kids and Iris’s kids were time-traveling with the Rogues’ kids, Barry wouldn’t be the Rogues’ enemy in the future. Or maybe the Rogues would be good guys. Oh, god.  
“Ok! My turn, my turn!” Moira said eagerly.  
“Ok, kid. Let’s see what you got,” Iris leaned back and smiled at Moira.  
“Well my name is Moira Hillarie West! I have a little sister, Sierra, and my mom is Iris, and my 23-year-old cousin, Wally, lives with us. I enjoy journalism, feminism and caffeine-ism. I take after my mother in those areas,” Moira said proudly.  
“Very nice, Moira and I must say, you do!” Iris said happily.  
“You look like Hermione Granger. I mean Hermione Granger from the book,” Even told ter.  
“Aww.” Moira smiled. “I do have the bushy brown hair.”  
“You really do. Kezia… do you want to go?” Shawna asked, hesitantly.  
“Sure… um. Well, my name is Lakeisha Samantha Baez. Lakeisha, by the way, means ‘favorite’ in Swahili, and in English it means happy and joyful. But the kids at school tease me, so I go by Kezia.”  
“Oh, honey,” Shawna said. “I got teased all the time for my name growing up.”  
“I know,” Kezia’s eyes sparkled. “You are my mom, remember? You have told me about getting teased.”  
“I have two younger siblings and I play football, soft ball and basket ball,” Kezia continued.  
“Cool! Kezia… can I ask you a question?” Shawna said.  
“Of course.”  
“Wh-who is your father?”  
Kezia smirked and pointed. “Sam Scudder. Or Sam Baez as he’s known to me.”  
Shawna and Sam simultaneously had small internal crises, but they both managed to stay (mostly) calm-looking on the outside, while the other Rogues looked between them and realized that they were actually a good pair together.  
“Dear Christ, I just set up my parents,” Kezia nearly gagged.  
“That can’t be good for the time stream,” Hal said nervously. Barry comforted him with a smile and a pat on the head.  
“It’ll be ok,” Barry told him. “I’m sure of it.”  
“A teleporter and a mirror man. They should make a reality show about you,” Mindy commented.  
“They’ve tried,” Kezia answered. “They’ve been hounding us for years!”  
“All of us,” Trixie rolled her eyes. “Producers, directors, writers, reporters, paparazzi. Sleaze balls!”  
“One producer finally gave up on the Rory Family Reality Show idea after someone threatened him,” Blaze said. “Dad turned the heat in our house up to like 95 degrees while this guy was pitching the idea to us, but he just wouldn’t leave. He was sweating through his whole shirt, looked like he fell in a pool. Then someone sent him a text with a photo-shopped picture of his Tesla on fire. That sent him running. And screaming.”  
Mick roared with laughter, banging his hand on the countertop.  
“My mom whipped a battery at one guy, I’ll never forget some of those swears,” Hal scrunched his nose. “But don’t worry, Dad, he wasn’t trying to get to you. He wanted to interview the Rogues’ family therapist.”  
“Patty’s the Rogues family therapist?” Barry asked. “How can she be considered a therapist? Pat hates people.”  
Hal shrugged. “She’s good at it. She listens. And she’s blunt which is surprisingly helpful.”  
“Cousin Wally threw a giant book at a photographer hiding in the bushes when we were walking home from the library. His girlfriend Linda has been caught on camera flipping photographers off like eight times. And my little sister, Sierra, bit a reporter who was trying to get her to sit still for a photo shoot,” Moira snickered. “This is the best part, Mom wrote an open letter to the Times Op-Ed section. She condemned the ‘media stalkers’ and said they wouldn’t know true journalism if it bit them in the ass. But she put it less politely than that. I didn’t know you could get pieces with that many curse words published. For her birthday last year Wally framed that article.”  
Iris smirked at future Iris’s antics and then asked, “Wait, Wally has a girlfriend?”  
“Yep, Linda Park. She’s a reporter too,” Moira said. “You’d like her, she’s nice.”  
“Mom and Dad dyed a tabloid reporter lady’s hair that ugly red-orange color,” Trixie giggled. Dante pretended to juggle, smiling. “Yeah, Dante, like Bozo the Clown!”  
“Dad punched a reporter on live TV,” Leo said.  
“And Mom threw her high heel at a guy,” Lenae added. “She’s got really good aim.”  
“My mom ‘accidentally’ pepper-sprayed a guy who snuck up on her and Dad while they were, uh... you don’t want to know,” Luz trailed off.  
“Not really,” Roscoe muttered. The Rogues that were sitting on either side of him, Evan and Hartley, both inched away from him.  
“Daddy got a lady arrested,” the mini Piper-David said, tapping his fingers against his hearing aids absentmindedly.  
“David did what!?” Hartley screeched, turning to look at him.  
“She was a producer who wanted to do a reality show on us,” the boy said. “She wouldn’t stop pestering us. She kept calling, and stopping by at dinnertime, dropping by my school and Dad’s office, following us around in her car. Dad got so angry he did a background check on her and got her arrested for a whole bunch of unpaid parking tickets in Miami.”  
Len sighed, “Alright, you.” He pointed at the mini Piper. “Your turn.”  
“I don’t want to go,” the kid dropped his head and looked at the floor.  
“He just doesn’t want you to know his name,” Trixie said. “He’s sensitive about it.”  
“What’s your name?” Hartley asked. “You can tell us, we really want to know.” He smiled at the child and tapped his own hearing hardware.  
The boy spoke softly. “Bankimchandra.”  
“Bankim-what-now?” Axel said.  
Lisa clapped a hand over her mouth to suppress her giggles.  
“It’s Sanskrit for crescent moon, Lisa,” Hartley said, elbowing her gently. “It’s a pretty name.”  
“Alright, cute name, kid. Now spill,” Len said.  
“OK. I’m Bankimchandra James Rathaway-Singh, I go by Bankim, I don’t have any siblings and my parents are David Singh and Hartley Rathaway. I was born deaf in case you were wondering, and I am in band and on the debate team,” the kid talked in a rush like he just wanted to get it over with.  
Hartley smiled at him.  
JJ elbowed Hartley smirking, “Bankimchandra James?”  
“Shut up,” Hartley shoved JJ back teasingly.  
“D-do I have kids?” Evan asked, rubbing his neck.  
“Do I?” Axel bounced up and down on his seat.  
“Uncle Evan has a toddler. His name’s Ian. I’m learning to babysit him!” Kezia smiled at Evan. Then she whispered, “He’s having trouble learning to poop in the potty.”  
Sam clapped a hand over his mouth while Evan blushed.  
“And Uncle Axel knocked up my aunt,” Bankim snickered.  
“He what?” Hartley shrieked.  
“I what? Axel shrieked.  
“Isn’t Axel gay?” Mindy asked JJ.  
“With twins,” Bankim giggled at Hartley.  
“Twins?” Hartley shrieked again.  
“That-that’s amazing!” Axel smiled.  
“Axel’s pansexual,” JJ said to Mindy.  
Hartley smacked the side of Axel’s head.  
“You are never going to see her,” Hartley told him.  
“Umm. You do realize we’re dating, right?” Axel asked.  
“You’re what!” Hartley shrieked even louder this time, and Len rubbed his ears.  
“I’m gonna need to borrow your hearing aids, kid,” he said to Bankim. Bankim promptly covered his ears with his hands and looked at Len suspiciously. “And you officially can’t take a joke. Noted. Singh must’ve rubbed off on you,” Len sighed. “Alright, I know that time travelling back here must have done something to powers, diminished them at least. But I want to know what each of you can do.”  
“Um, OK,” Leo said. “I don’t have powers, but my mom has taught me to fight so I actually am capable of self defense.”  
“And I’m cryokinetic,” Lenae told him. She raised her hand and pretty soon snow was swirling around her fingers.  
“Whoa,” Len looked closer. “That’s pretty cool, kid.”  
“Blaze has the opposite power,” Lenae looked over at them.  
“Yep, pyrokinesis.” Blaze made a similar hand gesture and the middle of their palm lit up with a yellow flame.

“Awesome!” Mick said. He leaned foreword to get a better look. He sniffed the flame and there was a small sizzling sound as his eyebrows grazed the edge of the fire.  
“You guys ever fight like Mick and Len do?” James asked the kids.  
Leo burst out laughing, “Lenae and Blaze fight all the time!”  
“We don’t fight all the time,” Blaze muttered.  
Leo said, “Lenae froze Blaze’s kindergarten science fair project after Blaze melted her favorite stuffed animal, and they fought over a boy on some TV show a little while ago-”  
“We weren’t fighting over him, Leo, for god’s sake. Blaze is nine! And Blaze melting Mr. Fluffles was an accident. I mean, they were five! I certainly couldn’t control my powers at five!” Lenae glared at her brother.  
“No shit! I still have a scar on my scalp from when you Elsa and Anna’d me!” Leo glared back at his sister.  
“Mr. Fluffles?” Roscoe eyed Len.  
“Don’t say ‘shit’,” Len said to Leo, ignoring Roscoe.  
“I can only imagine how hard it is for Len and Angie to raise those two,” Lisa whispered Mick, chuckling.  
“And I still have a scar on my face from when I Frank Ricard’d myself!” Blaze glared at the twins who both looked down sheepishly.  
“So that’s where you got that scar,” Mick leaned forward to look closer at Blaze’s face.  
“You let them watch ‘Old School’?” Iris said, staring at Mick with her hands on her hips.  
Mick shrugged, barely looking guilty. “I guess it’s a cult classic?” he said.  
Blaze sighed and pulled their hood down letting the Rogues get a good look at the burn scars on the right side of their face.  
“It’s beautiful, kiddo,” Mick said. “And you’ve got way better hair then me,” Mick leaned forward to ruffle Blaze’s brown pixie cut.  
“Thanks, Dad,” Blaze smiled at Mick and Len couldn’t help but smile, too, when he saw Mick’s expression.  
“Very cool powers! Genesis do you want to go next?” Julie looked at her.

Genesis smirked and shot straight up, hovering about 8 feet in the air. Her eyes began to spark.  
“Nice,” Mark said. Genesis floated down a few feet and fist bumped Mark, her curly black hair looked like if you touched it, you would get shocked.  
“You two want to go?” JJ asked the twins.  
“We don’t have powers and our parents don’t let us take our bag o’ tricks out of the house,” Trixie sighed. Dante pantomimed finger-wagging, then put his hands on his hips and made a very stern face. Trixie laughed. “He says our parents are wangs,” she said. She and Dante chest-bumped.  
“Should we discipline them?” Mindy asked JJ. He shrugged, looking totally helpless.  
“You tried,” Bankim muttered. “They are ‘incorrigible’.”  
“Sure they did!” Trixie said as Dante gave Bankim a hard but friendly punch.  
“Luz?” Roscoe asked, keeping a suspicious eye on the trickster twins.  
The little girl said, “I don’t get my powers from you two, obviously, but I have telekinesis.”  
To show it off she flicked her wrist and a bottle of wine and a glass zoomed over from the counter and hovered in the air right in front of her. She flicked her wrist again and wine poured into the glass. The glass then zipped over to hover in front of Roscoe, who picked it out of the air.  
“Lovely,” he said. He went to take a sip but Len took the glass from his hand and grabbed the bottle out of the air. He set them back on the kitchen counter.  
“This isn’t Happy Hour, Roscoe,” Len said sternly.  
Roscoe looked incredibly disappointed. “Hal?” Barry looked at his son.  
Hal smiled and zipped around the room a few times with his super speed.  
“Nice!” Barry said.  
“Moira?” Iris leaned forward with her elbows on her knees. “Do you have powers?”  
Moira cleared her throat. “I am a chameleon.”  
“Hmm?” Iris eyed her daughter.  
Moira sighed and suddenly her skin, hair and clothing turned the exact color of the Rogues’ dingy wall, even the texture was the same.  
“This would be a much more helpful power if I had something or someone to hide from,” Moira muttered bitterly.  
“I think it’s cool,” Iris told her.  
“Awww,” Moira smiled back at Iris. “Thanks, Mom!”  
“Where did you get that power?” Barry asked her.  
“Well, when you go to a sperm bank you can never be sure what you’re getting,” Moira said.  
“That is a horrifying thing to think about,” Iris looked green.  
Axel looked at Evan and said, “Is it just me, or are these kids way more sophisticated than we were at that age?”  
“Ax, they are more sophisticated than you are now,” Evan said.  
“Kezia?” Sam asked. “How about you. Powers?”  
“I can’t use my powers right now. I’m not sure why they won’t work, but if it interests you they are teleportation and access to the mirror world,” Kezia said.  
“Cool,” Sam said, nodding happily.  
“Bankim?” Hartley asked.  
Bankim smirked as he looked the Rogues over slowly. Eventually his gaze settled on JJ and he began to whistle a song that Len had heard Singh hum a few times. JJ began to sway slowly. Then he stood up, walking across the kitchen to the fridge. He looked confused, and he continued to sway rhythmically like he was dancing. He pulled a soda out of the fridge, he then started to shake it like a tambourine. Then he held in front of his own face and opened it. Soda splattered all over him and most of the Rogues cracked up.  
Bankim stopped whistling and JJ shook his head as if coming out of a trance (which he kind of did). Poor guy, confused and covered in soda.  
“I have your meta abilities and the anti life equation in addition to Daddy’s martial arts and the magic on his side of the family,” Bankim said, eyeing Hartley.

“The what?” Hartley blanched. “David has magic on his side of the family?”  
“You know, Uncle Randu? Auntie Anjeli?” Bankim asked.  
“Who? Hartley squinted.  
“OK, enough. Moving on. Do you hellions know how you got here?” Len asked.  
A chorus of sheepish, “um, no” and “uhh, yeah, no” was Len’s answer.  
“Do any of you know how to get back?” Len asked.  
He got the same answer.  
“I might be able to recreate the conditions that brought them here,” Hartley commented, doing math in his head. “But I think we should find out who or what brought them here first. It could be booby trapped, or they could just get sent to some other random place.”  
“If you can send us to Disneyland, that would rock,” Trixie said, and Dante nodded enthusiastically.  
“Or an all-you-can-eat buffet,” Blaze said. “At the Bellagio.”  
“Or Tatooine,” Hal said. “But not the Sarlac pit.”  
Len rested his elbows on the table and covered his face with his hands. “Just what we need around here,” he mumbled to himself, “a few more idiotic strong opinions.”  
“You really think you can get them back where they came from?” Mick asked Hartley. “Next you’ll be telling me Santa Claus exists.”  
“… What do you mean?” Luz looked up at Mick with her big eyes.  
“Huh?” Mick said.  
“What do you mean, telling you Santa Claus exists?” the little girl said, her lower lip trembling a little. “Are you saying he doesn’t exist?”  
“Yeah, Santa exists, Luz,” Blaze glared at Mick.  
Lenae face palmed and Leo sighed.  
“Oh crap,” Mick said. “Sorry about that.”  
“Santa exists, honey,” Lisa patted Luz’s head. “But he won’t be bringing any presents to a certain big, dumb, pyromaniac oaf this year.”  
The rest of the kids eyed her suspiciously but let the topic drop.  
“I have to go to the bathroom,” Hal told Barry. He stood staring at Barry.  
“Umm, do you want me to take you?” Barry asked nervously.  
“Yes, please.” Barry took Hal’s hand and led him to the bathroom while the kids and the Rogues snickered at them.  
“Poor Hal,” Lenae laughed. “Still to afraid to go to the bathroom by himself.”  
“Poor Barry and Patty,” Iris giggled.  
“Future bathrooms are much better then your bathrooms,” Bankim told the Rogues.  
“Now how to do know what our bathrooms look like?” Lisa asked him.  
“We’ve seen the pictures of it in our family photo album,” Luz told the Rogues.  
“Why do you guys have photos of our bathroom?” Mark asked the kids.  
“I don’t know, why do they have photos of the tree at my house? It’s not a special tree,” Leo said.  
“Wait you have a family photo album?” Julie said. “For all of us?”  
“Yep,” Kezia told her.  
“It must be big,” Roscoe said.  
“It is,” Luz demonstrated with her hands.  
“What other photos do you have in the book?” Iris asked.  
“Vacations are a big one,” Kezia said. “Like the time Mom and Dad took us to Hawaii. Us kids were playing in the pool and Dad walks up to the edge of the pool, standing right next to the ‘No Diving’ sign. He dives in, of course, and scrapes the crap out of his face on the bottom of the pool. When his head popped up out of the water his nose and forehead were bloody.”  
Shawna burst out laughing and Sam winced rubbing his nose. “That sounds excruciating.”  
“Luckily Mom got that one on camera,” Kezia said.  
“We’re back,” Hal ran forward and plopped down with the rest of the kids while Barry lowered himself down to sit with the Rogues. Barry’s face was pale and he looked faint.  
Iris giggled. “Rough time?”  
“I will never speak of this experience,” Barry shook his head.  
“At least it was quick,” Mick told Barry.  
“Wait, what time is it?” Lenae asked suddenly.  
“5 o’clock,” Iris answered. “You’ve been here for a little over an hour.”  
“Oh shit,” Bankim pointed to the adults. “Our parents are gonna be worried sick.”  
“Watch your language.” Hartley gave Bankim a disciplinary look.  
“Bunny’s right,” Luz said.  
“Bunny?” Roscoe asked.  
“Luz lived in Ireland until she was two, when Aunt Lisa and Uncle Roscoe adopted her, and she learned Gaelic before she learned English. She’s got most of it down but still struggles with the hard-to-pronounce words,” Leo said. He sighed.  
“You speak Gaelic?” Lisa asked Luz.  
“An ni chi na big, ‘s e ni na big,” Luz spoke in rapid Gaelic.  
“Umm. Ok.” Len squinted.  
“What does that mean, Luz?” Lisa asked.  
“What the children see, the children do,” Luz said, solemnly.  
“That’s frightening,” Mindy said, looking over at Mick and Blaze.  
“Do you know Hindi?” Roscoe asked Bankim.  
“What makes you think I know Hindi?” Bankim said.  
“W-well,” Roscoe said, thinking, “Damn, am I a racist?”  
“We figured you were adopted from India. I thought David would want a kid from there,” Len reluctantly came to the man’s rescue.  
Bankim and the kids all looked at each other. “What makes you think I’m adopted?” Bankim asked.  
The Rogues all looked at each other.  
Leo elbowed Bankim and said, “They’re ignorant. The LGBT fertility project was started in 2017. This is 2015.  
“Oh right!” Bankim smiled at Hartley. Hartley’s face turned a strange shade of gray.  
“OK, once again, moving on!” Len said. “Did any of you actually eat anything? Isn’t that why we are all crammed in the kitchen?”  
“We forgot,” Trixie said as Dante shrugged.  
Len said, “Alright, us adults must process this information, you guys can get food.”  
”We’ll stay with them,” Evan grabbed Axel by the arm and kept him in the kitchen as the Rogues shuffled off into the other room, leaving the kids exploring the fridge and cupboards. Something glass crashed on the floor.  
“Uh oh,” one of the kids said. “Way to go, butterfingers!” someone said.  
Hartley scrambled up toward Barry and said, “Where the hell did that kid come from?" He nearly yelped. He sighed. "God, sorry, Barry. That magic thing kinda through me off my game."  
Barry looked slightly sheepish. "It's perfectly fine. As for Bankim, I actually ran a DNA test on him. While Hal was in the bathroom I raced to the lab and tested some hair and skin samples. I thought there was something unusual about that kid. He seemed to much like you two to not be biologically related." Hartley seemed to ponder the air in front of him before looking back at Barry. "What did it say?" "You and David are his biological parents, but their was a slight trace of a third parent's DNA." Barry answered. "Whose was it?" Hartley asked quickly, the other rogues nodding and leaning in as not to miss anything. "Lisa Snart. I'd say she carried Bankim and then adopted her own kids afterwards." Barry told them. Lisa looked surprised but a smile grew across her face, mimicking Hartley's expression. They shared a knowing smile. “Now that that little detail is sorted out, let's leave unconventional birthing methods for our future selves to sort out. It doesn’t really matter to us right now. We'll find out soon enough.” Len said.  
“What are we going to do?” Shawna said, getting the conversation back on topic. “We have to get them home before dark. Bankim’s right! Our future selves must be worried sick.”  
“Did you guys notice how sheepish they sounded when Len asked if they knew how they got here?” Iris said tapping her fingers on her arm. “What if they know how they got here, but revealing what they know will reveal that they were up to no good and get them in trouble with their parents. I mean us.”  
“You reporters are a bunch of conspiracy theorists,” Mark said, sitting down hard in his favorite chair. “You sound paranoid, West.”  
“Yeah,” Hartley said, “they are good kids. I know they would never bullshit us. They are honest and relia…”  
“We lied,” Lanae walked in from the kitchen and interrupted Hartley.  
“Damn it,” Hartley said, his cheeks red. Len and Mick chuckled.  
Lenae went on, “Iris is right. We do know how we got here.”  
“Lenae,” most of the kids groaned as they filtered through the doorway from the kitchen. Leo was flipping off his sister, Genesis was playing with the porcelain tea set Roscoe had given Lisa a few years before, Luz had a cupcake in her hand twice the size of her fist, and Bankim’s fingers were stained orange with cheese-puff dust. Dante was juggling a tangerine, a bandana and someone’s cell phone, while Trixie was sticking candy from the Rogues’ stash into her shirt and Kezia had stolen Evan's mirror gun, and apparently had gotten her teleportation back because she waited until Evan was just about to grab the gun and then poof! she was a few feet away. It was painful to watch.  
“How did you get here, young lady?” Len glared at his future daughter.  
“The Central City Summer Science Fair is coming up and for our project… together with our parents’ help… we built a small Particle Accelerator.”  
The Rogues’ eyes widened.  
“What’s that?” Axel whispered to Evan, who face palmed. “Oh my god.”  
“We were walking home from the library to go to Jerrie’s baby shower, and we were messing with the little particle accelerator, and Bankim said he could use some, as you call it, anti-life equation, to turn it on quickly and quietly so we could see if it worked. We turned it on, it started to glow blue and then… we were here.”  
“I told her it was a bad idea,” Hal said, looking worried.  
All the kids started squabbling, yelling at the top of their voices about who told who what, who never let anyone have fun, who was a tattletale, who had just slimed whose cellphone with banana.  
Len sighed. “All of you shut up!” he shouted.  
The kids bowed their heads. Leo pinched Lenae’s arm really hard and she yelped, slapped his hand.  
“Stop it, you two! Can you reverse it?” Len asked, looking like he already knew the answer was ‘no’.  
The kids all turned to Bankim.  
“Are you seriously asking the kid who got so nervous about reading a postcard in front of his class that he threw up to use a power called the anti-life equation to teleport 11 children from 2015 to 2030?” Bankim said, glaring at them.  
“Why yes, in fact we are!” Leo glared right back.  
“Can you teleport them back?” Mindy asked Hartley.  
“Bankim’s probably better with his powers than I am,” Hartley answered. Bankim shrugged.  
“We need to get them home!” Len pleaded with the rest of the Rogues. “Think!”  
“Uh,” Axel said.  
“Not you,” Len sighed.  
“Right,” Axel said, “good.”  
“I can contact the League-” Barry started.  
“No!” the Rogues snarled in unison.  
“We are not getting help from them,” Shawna said. “I don’t care if our future selves are having frigging nervous breakdowns about where these little shi...uh, sweethearts are.”  
“Agreed,” Mick said, “those self-righteous, arrogant, sons-of-”  
“OK,” Iris said, “we all get it, you don’t want to contact the League.”  
“Maybe,” Luz said, “we could contact the future you guys and get them to use the particle accelerator to transport the future us from the now back to the then. Though I will miss the now you guys, but I’ll be happy to see the future you guys, then.”  
“I think my head actually just turned inside out,” Axel said.  
“Jesus, kid, that was like a hell-carnival ride on the Time Scrambler,” Mick said, squinting at Luz. “I threw up a little in my mouth.”  
“That might be from your hangover,” Luz said, her big green eyes not very sympathetic as she looked Mick up and down.  
“Moving on,” Len said. “So Alberta Einstein, how do you propose we contact our future us to get our future kids out of my now house?”  
“Obviously,” Hal said, “if we tell you what to do now, and make it so memorable that there is no way you will ever forget it, then when the time comes in 2030, you’ll know what to do.”  
“Obviously,” Barry said. “Good job, Son!”  
“Thanks, Dad before you are my dad,” Hal said.  
Mick stood up and ran down the hall to the bathroom.  
“Sensitive stomach,” Len said. “So how do you propose you make it so memorable we won’t be able to help but remember?”  
“We could tattoo them with the date,” Kezia said, distracted, as if she were just realizing something.  
“Or brand them, since we don’t have tattoo equipment,” Blaze smirked.  
“That doesn’t sound very sanitary,” JJ stepped a few paces away from the excited little pyromaniac.  
“Branding?” Len thought for a minute. “Done.”  
“What!?” all the Rogues turned towards him.  
Mick stumbled into the room and crashed on to the chair. “What are we doing to make it memorable?”  
“We’re going to brand you guys with the date we left the future,” Blaze crowed.  
“Oh, lovely,” Mick smiled at her.  
“How do you think branding us will help?” Axel asked nervously.  
“People remember things that are accompanied by intense sensory stimulation, ” Kezia said, staring at the Rogues. “Like love, or pleasure.”  
“Or pain,” Blaze added.  
“Oh, right,” Iris said. A few of the Rogues nodded, a few squirmed. Mick looked alert and happy for the first time all day.  
“Oh, so that’s why I remember that pigs don’t sweat every time I have sex with Lisa! Jeopardy was playing on our third date- I mean ninth date!” Roscoe said.  
Len gave him an icy glare while Lisa, the Rogues and the kids all burst out laughing.  
“I always wondered where you got that weird scar,” Genesis said to Julie.  
“Oh, God,” Julie said. “It’s not on my face, is it?”  
“Arm,” Genesis said, pointing to her own forearm. Julie sighed with relief.  
“Alright, kids,” Len said, looking around at them. “Brand us.”

14 minutes and 52 seconds later they were crammed back into the kitchen.  
“You have to get it hot enough to burn right through the top layers of the skin instantly,” Mick said, heating a metal coat hanger up over one of the gas burners on the stove. Blaze stood next to him, heating up a coat hanger on the other burner. The metal started to glow and they both stared, mesmerized. The house was about 85 degrees, not that Blaze and Mick particularly cared.  
“Touching,” Lashawn said to Len. “It'/ bring your kid to work day in Pyroland.”

“OK,” Kezia said. “Bankim has written instructions on this piece of paper. While you are in the chair getting branded, you need to focus on carefully reading the information.” She held the piece of paper up and flashed it at the adults. It was covered with numbers, Greek letters and incomprehensible symbols of different sizes stacked on top of each other, going on for line after line.  
“It looks like Stephen Hawking’s brain exploded on that,” Axel yelped. “How the hell are we supposed to memorize it? I dropped out of school in junior high!”  
Trixie looked at Dante, who made some hand gestures that set Trixie off on peals of high-pitched laughter.  
“What?” Axel said. “What did he say?”  
Trixie forced words out between her giggles, “He says you’re even dumber now than you are in 15 years.”  
“I am not dumb!” Axel glared at them.  
“Really? Because I remember the time you forgot to close the gate at the top of the stairs when you watched Bankim as a baby and he broke his arm! David almost killed you!” Trixie giggled.  
“You’re laughing, but that hurt.” Bankim told her.  
“Nana nana na-na, Ax-el’s stu-pid!” Trixie crowed.  
Axel stared the twins down. “You’re grounded, both of you, I’ll make JJ and Mindy ground you,” he said. Dante whirled his fingers in the air, making big circles around his ears; the universal sign for “They’re Crazy.” The children all laughed.  
“Come on, these are ready to go!” Blaze yelled.  
“Yes, let’s move on,” Len told all of the tricksters pointedly.  
“OK, we know you won’t all be able to understand or remember the whole thing,” Kezia said. “But hopefully you’ll be able to piece it together.”  
“Me first!” Mick yelled. Kezia set the paper on the table and Mick sat down and started reading it, his arm laid out across the table top like a roast ready for carving. “Do the honors, Blaze. Make Daddy proud!”  
The air filled with the nasty smell of burning hair and skin, and with Mick’s moans of either pain or pleasure, as Blaze seared his forearm with a date, precisely 15 years in the future.  
“I’m not sure I’m down with this,” Hartley said backing away.  
“You have to do it, Rathaway,” Len told him. “You’re the only one here who speaks math.”  
“You’ll do it,” Bankim said. “I’ve seen the scar on your arm. So you might as well get it over with.”  
“I can speak math,” Roscoe muttered.  
“Oh right, you can go third after Hartley! The coat hanger will still be really hot,” Len leered at Roscoe.  
“Wait never mind, I don’t want to go, I can’t speak math!” Roscoe said quickly and backed away from Len.  
“Knock it off, Lenny,” Lisa glared at Len. “We’ll all do it.”  
One by one, the Rogues sat at the table and got the date carved into the flesh on their arms as they tried to memorize the instructions for getting their kids home. Some were more stoic than others. Three cried like infants. One threw up. Seven cursed. One passed out.  
“I can’t believe they do this to cows,” Luz whispered.  
“I know, right?” Genesis whispered back. “So mean.”  
By the time they were finished the house smelled like a really bad Louisiana barbeque joint. Leo and Lenae wrapped gauze around the Rogues’ burned arms.  
“They’re kind of being babies about this,” Leo whispered and Lenae nodded enthusiastically.  
“The question is,” Len said, tears still in his eyes from his turn in the torture chair, “will it work?”  
“Of course it will work,” Barry said. He accidentally touched his burned arm to the table and winced.  
An eerie blue glow came from the living room, getting brighter and brighter.  
“Wow,” Barry said. “I can’t believe that worked!”  
The glow finally got so bright that everyone had to cover his or her eyes.  
When they looked again three adults were piled in what looked like very uncomfortable positions on the living room floor.  
One of the adults, Patty Spivot (or as she was known in the future, Patty Spivot-Allen) scrambled up from the living room floor and looked over the kids. After assessing that they were all mostly fine she pulled Hal into what must’ve been a bone-crushing hug.  
Another adult scrambled up and Len couldn’t help but stare as he watched an older but not less breathtaking Angie pulled Luz and the twins into a hug much like Patty had. “You three are in some deep trouble!” she said, kissing them all over their faces.  
“Mom, gross,” Leo said, wiping her ‘vixen’ red-pink lipstick off his forehead.  
The third adult, David Singh, stood up and ran to the children. As soon as he was close enough, Bankim scurried up David’s legs and hip until he was getting a piggyback from his father. “Bankimchandra James Rathaway-Singh, do we use anti-life equations to mess with the space-time continuum?” David said sternly.  
“No, Daddy,” Bankim said. He wrapped his arms so tightly around David’s neck that David coughed.  
“Good god, I can’t believe I just asked that,” David sighed.  
“Barry?” Patty straightened up and all three of the newly arrived adults look around, taking in the shocked Rogues standing in a trashed living room.  
“H-hi, Patty.” Barry looked up nervously. “How’s 2030?”  
“Uh, g-good, good,” Patty said. “What year is this?”  
“2015,” Kezia said, handing the kids their backpacks from the pile on the couch.  
David turned to Hartley and gasped softly. “Oh my god, I forgot how hot you were when you were young. Not that you aren’t still good looking in the future.” He smiled at Hartley.  
“Ewwww, Daddy,” Bankim buried his head in David’s shoulder.  
“You aren't so bad yourself. I like the salt and pepper,” Hartley said, running his fingers through David’s hair as Bankim swatted at his hand.  
“Ok, get the children back to the future, first--yes, JJ, I heard it as soon as I said it--flirt second,” Len said. He flicked Hartley in the side of the neck with his index finger.  
“Ow! Quit it!” Hartley flicked him back.  
“Boys,” Lawshawn glared at them.  
“Why are you guys here?” Mark asked. “Why didn’t our future selves come to rescue the kids?”  
“Yeah,” Lisa said. “Don’t tell me I just got branded for nothing!”  
Angie quickly answered, “That’s exactly it! Your future selves wussed out because they say the thought of returning to where they were burned was too painful. And they thought we would be much more diplomatic than them. Than you? Whatever. Well Patty and David would be, anyway.”  
“I think, too,” Patty said, looking compassionately at Barry, “that no matter what kind of craziness you guys have experienced in your lives, the thought of standing face to face with your past—or future-self is unnerving.”  
“This is really messing with the timestream, Mom!” Hal yelled at Patty, tugging her hand and trying to lead her to the glowing wall.  
“The kid’s right,” Len said, but he couldn’t resist. He wrapped his arms around Angie and planted a long, deep kiss on her lips.  
“Is it cheating on my husband if I make out with my husband?” Angie said as she came up for air. Then she dove back in and enthusiastically started kissing Len again. “You look like a damn baby,” she said.  
“Down, girl,” Mick said, pulling Len and Angie apart and shoving her toward the blue wall.  
“Bye, Barry,” Patty said, waving to Barry. “In May 2018 when you think you are just constipated, it’s your appendix. Don’t wait three days to go to the doctor!”  
“Thanks, Patty,” Barry said, blushing.  
“Wait!” JJ called. “Who wins the 2020 super bowl? I want to gamble.”  
“We were babies! How are we supposed to know?” Luz told James. “All of us were either not born yet or in diapers.”  
“It was those guys in the red uniforms,” Kezia said thinking hard. “I’m like 79 percent sure.”  
“I think they had some kind of animal on their helmets,” Moira commented.  
“Wait… was it the white uniforms?” Kezia looked confused.  
“Didn’t they have blue trim?” Trixie asked.  
“No, it was green trim,” Bankim told Trixie.  
“Ok, never mind,” James sighed.  
Angie giggled and leaned foreword to whisper something to JJ. “Don’t tell the others,” she said.  
“Yes!” JJ started to do a victory dance. “I know who won the Super Bowl, I know who won the Super Bowl.”  
“Alright get out of here!” Len shooed the children towards the wall.  
The kids stood with David, Patty and Angie, the blue glow behind them, making the whole situation look even more surreal.  
“Bye!” the kids yelled. “Bye, good bye!”  
“See you later!”  
“Thanks for having us!”  
The blue glow intensified, making it hard for the Rogues to look directly at their visitors.  
“Do you smell burnt hair?” Angie said, and then instantly they were all gone. The wall was just a dingy beige wall.  
The Rogues stood in silence for a minute, and then Hartley said, “Well, that was interesting.”  
“I miss them,” Shawna said, sniffing.  
“I think we should try to forget this ever happened,” Mindy said.  
“Yeah,” Mick said. “It never happened.” He rubbed at the intensely painful, warm, sticky date burned into his arm, and he smiled.  
“Ok… Axe, Mindy, we have a garage to paint,” JJ said. He’d been thrown by the children's appearance but was trying to shake it off. He, Mindy and Axel walked outside.  
“Happy Vinyl Record Day, everyone!” Axel sang out. Mindy gently slapped the back of his head.  
Despite their agreement to “forget it ever happened”, Hartley and Barry snuck off to call their respective significant others and see if they would believe what had just happened to them (and for Hartley to ask David about his relatives).  
As Iris went to get a soda from the fridge she cursed, “Crap! I should’ve asked Moira if I won a Pulitzer!”  
“I’m sure you did,” Barry reassured his friend.  
Sam shuffled up to Shawna and asked her out to dinner. “You’re all sweaty,” Shawna said.  
“You look like you just got done with a marathon,” Lisa observed from the couch.  
“He looks terrible. He always looks terrible,” Roscoe bluntly observed from next to her.  
“I’m nervous,” Sam said. “I sweat when I get nervous. You know that.”  
“You’re pitting right through your shirt,” Shawna said, laughing. “But yeah, I’ll have dinner with you.”  
Evan smiled as he walked into the kitchen, thinking about some day having a baby. He grabbed a broom to sweep up the old Beatles album that Hartley had gotten Mark for his birthday a few years ago. One of the kids had dropped it.  
Mark and Julie ended up playing paper football with Iris and Lisa (and of course Lisa was winning) and Roscoe went into the kitchen to get his wine.  
As life around the hideout slowly went back to ‘normal’, Len plopped down on the couch. He leaned back and crossed his arms over his chest, watched his teammates go about their lives. He couldn’t help but crack a smile as he thought to himself, “The future doesn’t look half bad. Not half bad.”


End file.
